Deutsche Hypo’s profit jumps to € 70.3 million

21. April 2016

Rise in profit by 70 %

Risk result as the main profit driver

Increase in new business volume in Germany and abroad

In the financial year 2015 Deutsche Hypo achieved a result from normal operations of € 70.3 million (previous year: € 41.4 million). The 69.8 % improvement on the previous year, which was affected by impairments of receivables from Heta Asset Resolution AG (Heta), is due in particular to a positive development in the risk result.“In light of the fact that Deutsche Hypo has for the first time reported a profit of over € 70 million, we can be very pleased with the financial year 2015,” explained Andreas Pohl, Speaker of the Board of Managing Directors of Deutsche Hypo. “However, we are aware that the increase in profit was due in part to special effects. The current market developments in commercial real estate finance represent a major challenge for all financing institutes.“UK and Benelux strongest foreign markets

Despite the increase in new business volume, Deutsche Hypo’s commercial real estate finance portfolio reduced by 3.7 % to € 11,953.6 million (previous year: € 12,409.8 million), the early repayment of loans being mainly responsible for this. These early repayments also resulted in early payment compensations, which more than made up for the slightly lower income due to the reduction in the portfolio. As a consequence, net interest income increased slightly by 1.0 % to € 224.5 million (previous year: € 222.3 million).

Deutsche Hypo’s financial year 2015 was characterised in particular by the positive development in its core business area. The Bank increased its new business volume in commercial real estate finance by 2.8 % to € 3,710.7 million (previous year: € 3,610.3 million), while maintaining its high quality standards. The slight increase was spread almost equally in percentage terms between activities in the home market of Germany (€ 2,183.1 million (previous year: € 2,117.5 million)) and abroad (€ 1,527.6 million (previous year: € 1,492.8 million)). In the core foreign markets, the UK accounted with € 648.9 million (previous year: € 204.2 million) and Benelux with € 555.5 million (previous year: € 658.2 million) for the highest share in new Business.

Very positive development in risk result

The Bank’s overall risk result improved significantly in financial year 2015 to € -41.3 million (previous year: € -62.2 million). “The positive development in the risk result is proof of the high quality of our financing portfolio,” stated Pohl. Deutsche Hypo has benefited from its quality-oriented lending policy in recent years. Net expenses in commercial real estate finance reduced significantly to € -15.6 million (previous year: € -48.6 million), an improvement of 67.9 %.

After already having set up significant loan loss provisions for its Heta exposure in 2014, Deutsche Hypo increased these in 2015 due to new findings and using prudent assumptions. This had a negative effect both on the risk result and the income from securities and participatory interest, which totalled € -29.4 million (previous year: € -42.5 million). Other operating income reached € -6.3 million (previous year: € -5.1 million).

Significant increase in the bank levy has negative impact

The reason for the slight increase in administrative expenses to € 77.8 million (previous year: € 75.6 million) was the significant increase in the bank levy that has to be paid. Not taking this effect into account, administrative expenses would have been stable; this is due in particular to the continued strict cost management in Deutsche Hypo. As a result of the higher bank levy, the Bank’s Cost-Income-Ratio rose to 35.6% (previous year: 34.1%).

Funding had another successful year in 2015: The Bank issued securities in the total amount of € 3,571.5 million (previous year: € 2,852.2 million), including mortgage Pfandbriefe in the amount of € 1,601.5 million (previous year: € 1,613.7 million) and unsecured bonds in the amount of € 1,970.0 million (previous year: € 1,238.5 million). Among the issues, the placement of two benchmark mortgage Pfandbriefe stood out, with high demand for both in Germany and abroad.

Cautious optimism for the financial year 2016

Pohl opened his outlook for 2016 by stating: “The commercial real estate markets are still in good shape at the start of the new year. Against this background we are expecting business prospects to remain good in our core markets. However, the challenges will not be any easier,” he added for consideration, mentioning in particular the high level of liquidity in the market, the ever-increasing competition, the resulting pressure on margins and the meeting of further regulatory requirements. “As we do not expect special effects to be at the same level of 2015 and will stick to our policy of quality-oriented lending, for 2016 we are expecting our result from normal operations to be slightly below last year’s result.”